Lit Dark Empire and Coruscant

One of many reasons why I don't consider Dark Empire canon ("head canon" if you will). I get that many people do like it but so many things about it just don't fit in with the story and vibe of the post-ROTJ EU, IMO.

 

I never minded it(there may have been a time I felt the discomfort some fans did about it but I got over it). I always felt that palpatine coming again fit his nature as a villain-both the pursuit of immortality and his enduring challenge to the protagonists. Thematically DE is where Luke really comes into what I would consider Jedi mastery. Where Leia starts to embrace being a Jedi before she kicked the can down the road and the last real chance of victory for the empire.

In a literary sense, given how Darth Plagueis alluded to the book of revelation and palpatine as the iconic satanic/anti Christ sort of figure-palpatine being reborn to spread chaos one final team seems to read a lot like revelation 20 to me. Where the bible says the devil will be losed from his prison before being defeated for good.

Come to think of it, there was indeed a time many years ago in which I did feel uncomfortable with DE, I felt it undermined Anakin's redemptive act and seemed somewhat repetitive. Now I think that isn't the case-anakin still fuflilled the prophecy and Palpatine's first death the catalyst for everything in the EU that followed.

 

TLJ does suggest that Luke didn't start his temple until he was tasked with training Ben - but on the other hand, Battlefront 2 and Shattered Empire show Luke already going about the business of collecting Jedi lore and artifacts months before Ben is even born. If the assertion that Luke had no interest in training anyone until he sensed Ben's power is correct, these activities and the many years Luke spent doing so afterward are entirely meaningless. Further, why would Luke being out of contact with the Republic imply a lack of allegiance to or concern for it? He fought and suffered for years to being that Republic into existence. Do war heroes typically lose their loyalty to the cause they fought for when they retire from active service and become private citizens? Of course not. And there is no evidence Luke did so. Canon Luke seemed to operate outside of direct Republic oversight, but that's hardly the same thing as having no allegiance to it.

 

Yes, but Palpatine was manipulating things from behind the scenes as the Omnipotent Battle Leader, in a role I imagine was very prequel-era-Sidious in nature.

Here's a little timeline I made once for my own purposes:

8 ABY
Admiral Fayet Kiez called to Byss with Executor-class Whelm
Admiral Inos Fonada called to Byss with fleet
Top designers/researchers from Kelada called to Byss with design schematics

8.5 ABY - NR seizes KDY shipyards
Agents bomb shipyard, send Aurora and Stellar Halo into the sun
Entire KDY senior design team leaves for Byss with Eclipse

9 ABY
(Thrawn campaign 4:25>8:27)

“Omnipotent Battle Leader” recruits Blizter Harrsk, Treuten Teradoc, Sander Delvardus, Ardus Kaine, Imperial Ruling Council
Dark Side Elite formed

10 ABY
Pre-Shadow Hand Campaign
Praji conquers Kaikielius
Delvardus conquers Metellos, Alsakan, Brentaal IV
Harrsk conquers Caprioril, Giju, Frego, Andara, Gandeal
Teradoc conquers Corellia, Trellen
Kaine conquers Drearia, Uviuy Exen, Orinda, Ord Mantell, Dorin, Bilbringi, Palanhi, Obroa-Skai, Bandomeer
IRC fleet conquers Contrum, Columex

Fleets converge - Second Battle of Coruscant / Imperial Mutiny
Delvardus conquers Anaxes
Kaine/Delvardus conquer Borleias
Delvardus conquers Aargau, Cal Seti, Chandrila
Kaine holds Brentaal IV
Battle of Esseles - NR victory
Ralltiir conquered
Drearia, Chasin, Alsakan - Imperial mutiny

Palpatine reveals himself

 

This is actually a good point to settle, whether he wanted the other Imperials to prove themselves and he revealed himself to all of them when the Mutiny was dying down or whether he contacted them secretly just after Thrawn's campaign and coordinated the recapture of Coruscant from behind the scenes. I've seen conflicting accounts about this, both on Wookieepedia and in reference books / sourcebooks, so I would like to get an actual, confirmed state of the canon.

BTW, @Daneira, did you coin the title “Omnipotent Battle Leader” or did you pick it up from somewhere?

 

It’s from an article that Abel G. Pena and Dan Wallace wrote. Palpatine recruited the admirals, etc. using the name Omnipotent Battle Leader. Only after the mutiny did he reveal himself as the Emperor.


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It originally came from Darksaber, as one of several overly-grandiose titles the fractured warlords took for themselves.

Also funny: another one of those titles from Darksaber was Supreme Leader!

 

I can't believe no one has grabbed "Omnipotent Battle Leader" as their username yet. Maybe it's too long?

 

Ventress lives!

 

I'm not at all against the idea of the Rebs losing Coruscant. Just the way it was handled was honestly terrible. With DE itself it's understandable. I think Jedi Search is what really dropped the ball. There was plenty of ways to reconcile DE with the burgeoning EU, but Jedi Search more or less brushed it all under the rug. I think the loss of Coruscant is surely one of the lower points of the EU timeline.

 

I have often said the ST is a watered down Legacy of the Force. This thread is leading to me conclude the ST is a watered down DE as well.

 

I think a lot of the hate for DE (beyond dislike for the entire concept of a returned Palpatine or dark Luke) comes from it being conflated with its inferior (and unnecessary) sequels DE2 and EE.

 

But you have to love seeing Sheev visit Korriban.

 

And because everything is either green or purple.

 

DE's art might be easy to knock by today's standards, but to a kid in 1991 who'd cut his teeth on the far more "mainstream" art of Marvel's mid-80s Star Wars run, it was pretty revolutionary stuff. It felt "edgy" to me back then, the sort of thing that would have been more at home in Heavy Metal or in something from Marvel's Epic imprint than "just" a comic book. The art, the story, those amazing Dorman covers - the whole package felt like that, honestly.

 

Sheev??? That's non-legends.

 

I didn't mind it in fact I liked Palpatine as a crazy amped up reborn warlord/sorcerer.

 

It's definitely an emperor of the time without the background of the Prequels that add to the character.

 

I wonder: Did the people of the galaxy find out that Palpatine is Sidious as a result of the events of Dark Empire?

 

You mean the absurdly clone-ish warlords?

 

I don’t think most people knew who Sidious was. I think Palpatine being a dark sider was probably made obvious with the Church of the Dark Side being made the official Imperial religion after his first death.


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I wouldn't be surprised if Palpatine also found the title "Omnipotent Battle Leader" silly, but went with it just to troll the Imperial warlords and admirals.

 

Palpatine always did have a tendency to troll people for his own amusement.

As for the prequels and DE-I think what really bridges the gap is the Darth Plagueis novel, and it's important to note palpatine in the prequels and palpatine in DE are operating under different contexts. Palpatine in the prequels must act with patience and subtlety-even if the endgame long term is equivalent to DE, DE era palpatine is skipping politics and patience-it's to destroy his enemies and bring the Galaxy, nay the universe to heel.

Spending time in chaos probably didn't help him keep his composure either.